Sunday, February 9, 2014

About a week before our move, we got a call from our Realtor. The house we were going to be moving into wouldn't be available for another month. What?!? So, we were supposed to be out of our GA house on June 30th, but our new house wouldn't be available until Aug 1st.

That leaves 1 month with no house.

And four kids.

And a hamster.

ummm....

So, what else could we do? ROAD TRIP!!!!!

Why not? So, instead of paying rent for the month of July, we traveled the southern part of the USA.

From Georgia, we went to:

Dallas, TX

Kerrville, TX

Sierra Vista, AZ

Vista, CA

St. George, UT

Albuquerque, NM

Fort Worth, TX

Whew! It was amazing, exciting, exhausting, and tons of fun!

Goodbye, Dallas, GA.

After a day and a half of packing the moving truck, we had our final walk-through of our beloved house, and off we went. We left midday, and figured we'd just drive until we couldn't anymore.

Following the budget truck.

I think we must have stopped somewhere in Mississippi, got a good nights sleep, and kept going on our trek.

Dallas, TX

We had a lot of fun visiting with family in Dallas. Lots of cousins! :)

We got to be there for my nephew, Chase's birthday.

We were there for my 30th birthday too. Check out the awesome cake my sis in law made for me!!! It was fun, we got a babysitter and went out for a stake dinner with several of John's siblings and their spouses. Perfect way to spend a birthday, with family! :)

The kids all needed hair cuts. I usually cut it myself, but since trimmers were packed, we went to Sports Clips. Oh, it would be so easy to get spoiled and start doing this from now on!! No wrestling kids. No yelling at Logan to stay out of the hair. No Cory freak-outs. Just an hour of playing on my phone, and then there are good looking kids. Ahhhhhhh! Bliss...

And just look at all those handsome boys!!!

We spent July 4th with the Tilton crew. Once again, cousins galore. It was way fun!!

And just look at all those fireworks. They take this stuff very seriously. :)

We had hours of enjoyment out of this little stack. :)

Logan found Aunt Jessica!

We spent lots of time at the lake with cousins. Josh (John's brother) was some jet skis and fun was had by all! The lake even has a beach for the littles to play!

Kerrville, TX

Next stop was Kerrville, TX. Home of my sister, Reenie. (It's right next to San Antonio. We stayed a few days with Reenie, and then we were off!

Reenie and her 8 month old son joined us for our drive to AZ.

Sierra Vista, AZ

Reenie and I stayed with our combined five children with our parents for a little over a week.

First night, s'mores just in time to run inside before the monsoon hit. :)

My parents actually left for Girls Camp for most of the time that we were at their house, but that didn't stop Reenie and I from having a jolly time of it!

Tombstone!

Horse carriage ride. (Complete with allergy attack for poor Bryson)

Shooting range

Reenie flew back to TX, but we stayed a few days longer. After all, we had a month to kill! :)

Bisbee

The copper mine tour on Bryson's 9th birthday! :)

John came up for a few days and I was able to squeeze out a date with him! Yay. And of course, sushi!

I was able to visit with some friends while in SV too! Girls night!!!

Got to meet Sarah's sweet little baby! Awww!

Another friend, Sarah!

Tina's kids with my kids. Just missing Austin. :)

When Grandpa got back, we got to do Rockets at the church ball field. Boy time!

And then off we went! Next stop, sunny California!

Vista, CA

We stayed with my grandma in her retirement home in CA. Sounds like it would be torcherous for all parties, but it turned out to be quite the ball!!

My grandma was such a trooper, in fact, in many instances it seemed like she had more energy than the rest of us!!

We spent two days at the beach! Heaven!!

I couldn't figure out how to turn these around for some reason...computer was being weird. :(

In grandma's home. Man the kids sure love her! And I have a suspicion that the feeling is mutual.

Aunt Carolyn joined in most of the festivities as well. It was fun hanging with her. :)

I was very excited about this leg of the trip. We had a big surprise for the kids. BIG SURPRISE!!

We had been planning for about a month to take them to Disney Land. We had plans all laid out, and we waited for the right moment to tell them. Grandma, Carolyn, and myself were all quite proud that none of us had let the secret slip.

When the moment finally came, we made sure to record the whole thing. We didn't want to miss any of the reactions from the kids when they found out that the next day, they would be going for the very FIRST TIME EVER to DISNEY LAND!!!

The moment finally came. Adults giddy with delight. And we said it. "Tomorrow we have special plans! We are going to DISNEY LAND!"

And then their was quiet.

And then there was repulsed looks.

"Why?" The asked.

Well, because it's DISNEY LAND! Every child's dream!!

Well, after pulling the truth out of them, we came across the truth. The boys all thought that Disney Land was MUCH to baby-ish for them. (After all, this is a very mature crowd). They said they'd rather go to Lego Land or ...welll...basically anywhere else, if given the choice between that and disney land.

Somewhere there is a hysterical recording of this entire conversation. ha ha.

So, we went back to the drawing board and spent the afternoon searching for another activity.

The Orange county fair was in town, so we decided that would be a good alternative.

To this day, I am still shaking my head. No Disney Land??? REALLY???

But the kids had a blast! And so did adults. And we didn't spend the whole day in lines. So all in all I would call the day a huge success. :)

...Funny kids....

They won a purple minion.

And pet a cow.

And visited the goats (of course!)

Logan rode the carousel

while the older boys slid down the giant slide.

It was an amazing leg of our journey. But wait! There's still more!!! (We couldn't believe it either at this point!) After a fun-filled week with Grandma and Carolyn, we said our good-byes and were off

to..

St. George, UT

My grandma (Banana) has recently moved to UT, and we hadn't been to her new place yet. This was the perfect opportunity.

We spent three days with her. I was amazed with just how beautiful it was.

We had a lot of fun on this petrified sand dune. See what I mean? BEAUTIFUL!

Breathtaking!

Banana had to give a talk on Sunday, so as she prepared her talk, we took some time to tour the St. George temple. Very very pretty.

We also got to meet up with my mom's sister, my Aunt Karen, and her husband. It was a lot of fun getting to know them a little better. We let the kids play in the water while we chatted away.

Love this cute little picture of Logan completely crashed at Banana's house after all the fun!

And then we were off again! To New Mexico.

Albuquerque, NM

We stayed overnight in NM to break up the trip back to Texas. We took the evening to just eat and relax.

The next morning we were able to pull into our house in Fort Worth, TX.

What an amazing ride it was. But we sure were glad to be safe and sound in our new home. :)

Our little family!

Founders of the family

John

John is a wonderful daddy and husband. We've been married 10 years. He is currently balancing his job as a pipe-liner, church, exercising, and of course, family. Our boys adore him, and he adores them right back. They all get a huge kick out of wrestling together.

Jessica

I get to play "house" every day. I have a really great husband and some seriously cute kids...ah, the life of a domestic goddess. I am a stay-at-home mom to our four little boys who I just adore...most days... :) As a hobby, I have started a recipe site, to take a peek, click on my picture.

Cory

Our oldest is Cory. He's 9 and quite the handful! He's an amazing big brother, and a huge help to his mom. He's in 4th grade, and loves math. He's about as sweet as they come, quite the little nurturer! He is very into building things out of legos, he has spent countless hours making robots, castles, trains, giants, etc out of blocks. He's amazing at thinking outside of the box. He also loves cub scouts, transformers and drawing.

Bryson

Bryson is our middle child, age 8. He's about as tough and brave as can be. He LOVES playing with his cars, legos, and wrestling with his brothers and dad. He wants to be just like Cory when he "grows up". He's in 3rd grade and is doing excellent. He has lots of friends and is learning all sorts of new things. It's an absolute joy to watch him grow.

Dallin

Our next son is Dallin. He's 5, and about as rascally as a little boy can be. He will wrestle anything that moves, whether it wants to wrestle with him or not. He loves to feel like one of the big boys. He started Kindergarten this year, and has LOVED it. To view a funny video of him, click on his picture!

Logan

Logan is the newest member in our family. He is 2 and such a fun little guy, despite his stubborn streak. :) He looks up to his brothers, and gets super happy when they decide to play with him. He enjoys going outside with them and watching all the fun things they do. He can't wait to join them in their many adventures throughout the day.